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balance recreational opportunities and more traditional consumptive uses in order to maximize <br />the utilization of water for beneficial use, similar to the limits placed on the appropriations of <br />minimum flows to preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree. Id. <br />City of Fort Collins, which explicitly recognized that the CWCB possesses by statute the <br />exclusive right to appropriate minimum stream flows as are required to preserve the natural <br />environment to a reasonable degree, 830 P.2d at 930, does not suggest that the right to divert <br />water for beneficial use, as those terms are defined by statute, is an unlimited constitutional right <br />to divert the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses. Whether a <br />traditional diversion is necessary, the nature of the diversion necessary to effect an appropriation, <br />and the nature of beneficial uses are subjects which the General Assembly has the power to <br />define to ensure maximum utilization of water. Cf. City of Thornton v. Bifou Irr. Co., 926 P.2d <br />at 86 (in addition to the dual focus on maximum beneficial use for protection of water rights, <br />water judges must give consideration to the potential impact of the utilization of water on other <br />resources; imposition of a revegetation conditions was within the trial court's authority to <br />balance the beneficial use of water with the preservation of other natural resources even without <br />legislative authorization). <br />V. CONCLUSION <br />The Water judge's failure to apply section 37- 92- 103(10.3) to limit Applicant's RICD to <br />the minimum stream flow for a reasonable recreation experience runs contrary to both the <br />purpose and intent of Senate Bill 216 and long- established Colorado water law principles <br />designed to ensure optimum use of a scarce resource. Nor can the Water judge's failure be <br />supported by the constitutional right to appropriate. Therefore, the Water judge's decision to <br />grant the Applicant the full measure of the stream flow requested by the Applicant without <br />determining the minimum stream flow for a reasonable recreation experience must be reversed. <br />22 <br />